KINGSPORT — Dobyns-Bennett High School and the region got a little greener last week, thanks to electricity-generating solar panels a contractor and students installed atop D-B’s Career Technical Education Center.The 22 panels will generate a total of five kilowatts, which is green engineering that in times of low power usage will make an electric meter for the building run backward as the panels put electricity into the grid.

“Basically, it’s going to turn the electric meter backward,” said Ginger Keller-Ferguson, the school system’s technical and grant writer, who applied for the grant to fund the project on behalf of the school system.To put the project in perspective, Keller-Ferguson said each year the system will avoid the need for putting 8,939 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, reducing pollution the equivalent of 10,726 miles of automobile driving.

It also has the same impact on the environment as planting 30,096 square feet of trees.Kingsport City Schools last fall received a $44,625 Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for Schools program grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.
The ARC funding went through the CTE Department at D-B for the project, titled Seminars in Green Collar Job Preparation. It funded the installation of a photovoltaic solar power system atop the CTE Center.

Art Krebs of Afton, Tenn.-based Construction Art installed the panels and the rest of the system, with help from students of engineering teacher Randy Elam. Krebs said the panels will provide enough or almost enough power for the distance learning area lights and computers with bright sunlight, producing surplus power when those things are not in heavy use.The freshmen and potential future green engineers involved with the project said it was fascinating to be directly involved with the green technology.

Lindsey Altizer, 14, said her first career choice for now is a pharmacist, but her second choice is engineer.

Peter Alley, 15, was in a pre-engineering class but got to help with the solar panel project.

Asked if such technology would become more commonplace, Alley said, “It depends on what kind of tax is going to be slapped on this.”

“I don’t see us in 30 years having flying cars,” he said but predicted more efficient green energy is coming.

And Estrella Martinez, 14, said the class fits in with her possible goal of becoming an engineer.

“I like working on stuff. I love science,” she said.

The installation will offset a portion of the energy consumption of the new distance learning computer lab in the CTE Center and will serve as a learning tool for a series of green collar job awareness and preparation seminars.

CTE students were involved in the design and installation of the solar equipment, and Web-based tools will allow students to monitor the unit’s energy output in real time.

Elam said that in Germany most homes have solar panels installed on their roofs at no charge through a government program. Over a 20-year period of a government contract, homeowners receive the equivalent of $20,000.

The teacher said he’s thought about putting panels atop his own home, but the expense and payback time make it an expensive proposition for most U.S. residents unless they have a home well off the existing grid.

Lesson plans provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program will be used in conjunction with green collar career workshops to raise student and community awareness of energy efficiency, renewable resources, and career opportunities in the expanding green collar job market.

Program curricula and learning tools will be utilized across a wide spectrum of CTE programs of study as well as traditional academic courses in math and science.

On Friday, Elam’s lesson to his afternoon pre-engineering sciences class was a review of the system, which includes the solar panels, a direct current disconnect switch, a power inverter that coverts DC to alternating current, and an AC disconnect switch.

The AC switch is to prevent the solar-generated electricity from inadvertently energizing the grid in the event of a power outage. That could cause workers trying to repair an outage to get electrocuted and is the same reason electric companies warn homeowners about not electrifying the grid with home generators during a power outage.

In essence, Elam explained that the panels act like a DC battery, using the radiation energy from the sun to generate a differential charge between electrons and voids to send the flow of electrons — or electricity — through the panel and into the system.

Keller-Ferguson said Krebs has been great to work with, particularly in letting students get hands-on experience in the panel installation.

Krebs said he wants to work with the system to get another grant, this one to put in place a solar collector that would heat water for the pool at D-B using a heat exchange system, not generating electricity.